Technical Specifications

The images used were taken from scanning photographs and photographic postcards from a library housed collection. Due to the age and deterioration of some of these photographs some minor post processing cleanup of the images is necessary. The hope is to present the images more as they actually appear in the photographs at hand. Therefore some blemishes are left intentionally on the images gathered.

Images are scanned at a resolution of 600 pixels per inch (ppi) and TIFF files are created that are used to create web accessible viewing images and to create high quality photographic images when necessary. These images are then archived onto a master CD-ROM and a backup CD-ROM, and placed in storage.

Derivative viewing images with a 750-pixel dimension on the long edge are created to allow the images to be viewed closely for detail and fit mostly within the average viewing area of a computer monitor. Given that there are a mixture of colored, sepia tone and pure black and white images, and that one of the methods of viewing the collection will be through the World Wide Web, the main viewing images are in JPEG medium quality format to standardize and simplify the image creation process and to allow for quicker loading of images. Thumbnail images are created with a 150 pixel on the long edge in GIF format to allow the viewer to see sufficient detail from a quick view since there are many landscapes contained in the collection. Use of the GIF format also allows for quicker load times since these files contain a smaller color palette.

Scanned items are then assigned to a category and given an alphanumerical code based on category, subcategory and date scanned. With the aid of a historian, metadata such as Title, Creator, Contributor, Subject, Keywords, Description, and Date of Origin are assigned and recorded on pre-formatted forms. This information is used in the header section of each web page created for the Mt. Lebanon History website. The subject metadata are used to help slot images into categories and subcategories for searching.

From a copyright standpoint, every image displayed to date is owned by the library. For any image acquired from the general public and not owned by the library a form is filled out that grants the library permission to display the item on the website. Often the images were taken by individuals in the communities pictured and they are part of the local history collection. In all cases, when in doubt, the owner of the photograph or image is listed in the metadata as the main contributor for any kind of rights issues.

Please check back to the Mt. Lebanon History website regularly as we add more pictures to the collection and more categories are developed to describe pictures and other items in the collection.